Misinterpretations often claim this verse endorses divorce as God's tolerant response to inevitable human failings, suggesting hardness of heart justifies ending marriages today; others wrongly assert it applies only to Mosaic law for Jews, permitting Christians unrestricted divorce, or twist it to support no-fault divorce by equating ancient concessions with modern relational breakdowns, thereby diluting the passage's emphasis on God's unchanging ideal of indissoluble marriage.
Matthew 19:8
King James Version (1769)
8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Jesus clarifies that Moses' permission for divorce was a concession to the hardness of human hearts—a sinful stubbornness that prevented perfect obedience to God's design—but this was not the original intent from creation, where marriage was established as a permanent, unbreakable union between husband and wife, reflecting God's faithful covenant love and underscoring the sacred, lifelong commitment intended for all marriages.